Maria Hill is the former Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and also held the title of "Commander". She enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as tough-minded and by the book. Her clearheaded pragmatism was a valued source of reason during the critical discourse surrounding the Avengers Initiative. After Nick Fury faked his death, she worked with him and was a part of the assault team that took down the Helicarriers from Project Insight.

Contents

Biography

Early Life

Maria Hill was born on April 4, 1982. Upon reaching to her adulthood, Hill first joined to the United States Armed Forces and later joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and rose through its ranks, at one point working in Madripoor[3] and becoming one of the organization's best agents. By 2012, Hill had already caught the eye of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director Nick Fury and had been appointed Deputy Director, working closely with Fury.[5]

Agent May's Transfer

Hill approved the transfer of Agent Melinda May from being an active field agent to working in the administration department due to a traumatic incident she had experienced during a Rescue in Bahrain which had killed several active terrorists while May had rescued a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but had also cost the life of a young girl who had seemingly been caught in the crossfire.[6]

Hill and Nick Fury took a helicopter and visited the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility where Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. was going underway to monitor the strange amount of energy that the Tesseract was emitting. Once they arrived they were greeted by Phil Coulson who made it clear that they were not aware of the reasons for the sudden surge of energy coming from the Tesseract and noted that Erik Selvig and his team of skilled scientists were still conducting tests to try and regain control of the situation with little success.

Upon hearing that the Tesseract was unstable and a serious risk, Fury ordered her to ensure that the Phase 2 prototypes were shipped out and that they evacuate as many staff members as they could. Hill questioned however that an evacuation could be meaningless as an explosion from the Tesseract could be too massive to escape from, but Fury ignored these concerns and instead told Hill to obey his orders. During their visit, Loki was transported to Earth through the power of the Tesseract. He enthralled several loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents while killing many of the others present.

With the Tesseract in his possession, Loki used two of his enthralled agents, Clint Barton and Erik Selvig to escape on a S.H.I.E.L.D. truck. Barton walked past Hill with Selvig and Loki, much to her confusion but she at this stage believed that Barton must have some kind of good reason to be transporting an unknown person from the facility. However Hill then got a call on her radio from Nick Fury warning her that Loki had taken control of Barton and stolen the Tesseract, at which point Hill was forced to take cover as Barton began shooting at her. While Hill waited behind a wall for Barton to stop firing, she heard their jeep start up as they made their escape.

Seeing this, Hill fired her weapon at them with little effect, so was forced instead to jump into another jeep and pursued them down the facility. Quickly catching up with them, Hill engage in a firefight in the facility's tunnel system but failed to stop Loki despite her best efforts as she and Barton each fired shots at one another. The portal that Loki had arrived in began to collapse and created a powerful surge of energy created by the Tesseract that collapsed all the area around it, destroying the facility and causing Hill's jeep to crash when it hit a large falling piece of concrete, very nearly killing her.

Hill became trapped by rubble, but survived. She radioed Nick Fury, informing him of what had happened during the chaos and noting that she was unaware of how many people had survived the explosion as she believed the number would be very low. Hill asked Fury what they should do next, with Phil Coulson also letting them know of his own survival. Fury told Hill and Coulson that this situation was now a Level Seven and that they were now at war. As a result, Fury decided that it was time to call in the Avengers as this was a threat that S.H.I.E.L.D. could not handle alone, much to Hill's skepticism.[5]

Loki was soon apprihended by Rogers and Romanoff with the assistance of Thor, who wished to return his brother to Asgard. When Tony Stark arrived with Phil Coulson and began talking in great detail with Banner about how Erik Selvig could use the Tesseract, Hill questioned when Stark had become such an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics and Stark replied that he had last night as he insisted that he had done the research, before he asked Hill how Fury could check his monitors. Hill did not see Stark planting a device on the Helicarrier's computer to download all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files.[5]

Maria Hill and Phil Coulson watched on a monitor as Fury and the Avengers argued while under the influence of Loki's Scepter. This was interrupted when Clint Barton used an explosive arrow which made the Helicarrier malfunction and start losing altitude. Hill quickly realized that the engine was down and ordered someone to get the engine going again. Tony Stark agreed to repair the engine, with the assistance of Steve Rogers.

As Hill was sent to check on the engines, she witnessed an enemy soldier throwing a grenade into the control room and managed to move out of the way of the explosion. Nick Fury began fighting back the invading forces but was also killed before Hill was able to shoot the man aiming at Fury. Hill and Fury stayed in the control room and ensured that the invading forces did not take control of the Helicarrier while Thor battled the Hulk, at which point Fury sent a jet in an attempt to lure the Hulk off the ship before he destroyed it. Meanwhile Barton was found and attacked by Black Widow.[5]

Losing Phil Coulson

In the aftermath of the battle, Hill had her injuries treated while the S.H.I.E.L.D. team checked on the damage done to the Helicarrier. Hill learned that Loki had escaped from the Helicarrier in a Quinjet and Thor had been thrown off the ship and could have then been killed, although Clint Barton had been subdued by Black Widow and was recovering from the effects of Loki's mind control. However Hill was also informed that Agent Phil Coulson had been tragically killed when he was stabbed through the heart by Loki's Scepter before he could stop him.

Hill was present when Nick Fury gave a speech to Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, explaining his true intentions of using the Tesseract to recreate HYDRA weapons, and the reasons for forming the Avengers, which was to build a team to fight the battles that S.H.I.E.L.D. never could win. Fury noted that Coulson had died while still believing that the Avengers could be formed and save the world. However despite his speech, Stark was too upset by the death of Agent Coulson and stormed out of the room, leaving Fury to confess that his plan was maybe too old fashioned as Hill had always believed.

Hill approached Fury a little while later and explained how she knew that Coulson's vintage trading cards that Fury had shown Captain Rogers were not in Coulson's jacket as Fury has claimed, but in his locker, meaning that Fury had been trying to emotionally manipulate the team. Fury defended himself stating that they needed the push to get them all ready to fight Loki once again. The lie was eventually successful in causing the Avengers to unite and steal a Quinjet in order to find and attack Loki in New York City where he planned on finally unleashing the full power of the Tesseract.[5]

Hill monitored the Battle of New York as the Avengers fought against Loki's army of the Chitauri, who had successfully invaded Earth through a portal created by the Tesseract which was being powered by Stark Tower. As the odds against the Avengers appeared to be getting lower, Hill informed Fury that the World Security Council were waiting to speak to him. Hill listened in horror as Gideon Malick attempted to convince Fury that they needed to launch a nuclear strike against the city which would kill millions of innocent men, women and children.

Hill attempts to stop a jet being launched

As Fury refused to obey Malick's direct order, he had his leadership taken away and Hawley took control of a S.H.I.E.L.D. plane, for the purpose of bombing New York City to stop the Chitauri Invasion and also kill Loki, regardless of the number of innocent lives this would destroy. Despite the best efforts of Hill and Fury, with Hill attempting to hack into the jet while Fury even shot it with a rocket, a second plane took off from the Helicarrier and fired a missile at New York City while Hill could only look on in horror while Fury made a new plan to stop the missile and save millions of innocent lives.

Hill watched the monitors as Iron Man successfully flew the missile into the Wormhole and destroyed the Chitauri Command Center, by doing so effectively ending Loki's invasion; although it appeared that Stark had been killed in the mission, he was able to be revived by the Avengers who then took Loki into custody, as he had been beaten into submission by the Hulk and reclaimed the Tesseract, which would be taken back to Asgard despite the requests of the World Security Council as well as Gideon Malick, who wanted to continue studying it's incredible and seemingly unexplainable power.[5]

Hill testing Ward on his loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. before informing him of his new assignment, much to Ward's annoyance as he believed himself to be a poor team player, although these complaints were ignored. She also oversaw the team's first mission, to investigate the Rising Tide and the Hooded Hero. During this time, both she and Doctor Streiten talked about their concern over Phil Coulson's status after his recovery in Tahiti following his death at the hands of Loki and also about his lack of awareness over the true circumstances that surrounded his death, with Hill noting that he must never learn the terrible truth about what really happened to him.

Prior to the launch of the Project InsightHelicarriers, Hill was called by Nick Fury to Washington, D.C. following his discovery of suspicious information about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intentions for Project Insight. Fury ordered her to come to DC within the next few hours, but did not reveal his reasons for needing her. A few seconds after the phone call ended, Fury was attacked by HYDRA assassins.

Fury escaped from the assassination attempt and regrouped in Steve Rogers' apartment to give him some intel, however he was shot and seemingly killed at the hands of the Winter Soldier. In order to keep Fury alive, Hill used Tetrodotoxin B and took him to a secret location so that he could heal with the assistance of Doctor Fine while they attempted gather whatever information they could about the truth about what was truly going on inside S.H.I.E.L.D..[9]

She then returned to the Triskelion and met with Jasper Sitwell, telling him that she had been absent from S.H.I.E.L.D. because she had been arranging Fury's funeral. Changing the subject, Sitwell showed Hill the footage of Captain America and Black Widow on the run and questioned her about it. She answered simply that she was not at all surprised as Captain America did tend to inspire loyalty among his allies. Sitwell replied that Alexander Pierce was moving her off the case and that she was to return to New York City after Fury's funeral, as Pierce felt that Hill connections to Rogers and the Avengers put her loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. into question.[10]

Saving Captain America

Hill saves Rogers, Romanoff and Wilson

"Any attempt on the director’s life had to look successful.""Can’t kill you if you’re already dead. Besides, I wasn’t sure who to trust."

Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon discovered HYDRA's infiltration of the organization and were captured during a battle with the Winter Soldier. Hill managed to attack a HYDRA guard and take his uniform. She snuck onto the vehicle carrying Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson and used a Taser Rod to knock out the other guard. She freed them and escaped with the help of a Mouse Hole device before Brock Rumlow could execute the three of them.

She brought them to Nick Fury's location and got medical assistance from Doctor Fine for an injured Romanoff, as she had been shot in the shoulder during the Battle of Washington, D.C. by the Winter Soldier. There, Hill revealed to the three that Fury was in fact not dead, and that they had developed a way to stop Project Insight but needed the group's help. The three questioned why this had been kept secret, Hill explained that HYDRA needed to believe they had succeeded.

They explained their plan to board the Helicarriers and change the chips inside to cause the Helicarriers' weapons to target each other rather than innocent people. Rogers explained his intentions to destroy both S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA, as he believed that although HYDRA and Alexander Pierce were the enemy, S.H.I.E.L.D. was proven to be a broken system; Hill agreed with Rogers and helped convince Fury that it was the right thing to do.[9]

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own.""One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are gonna die."

Hill broke into the Triskelion with Captain America and Falcon and coordinated them in their attempt to disable and destroy Project Insight. While Rogers and Wilson disabled the Helicarriers, Romanoff infiltrated the main conference room to capture Alexander Pierce with the help of Nick Fury. Hill stayed in the command center, ordering and tracking the team during the mission. She managed to defend herself several times from any attacking HYDRA agents.

Hill in the S.H.I.E.L.D. control room

During the battle, Rogers became trapped on board the Helicarrier while he was fighting the Winter Soldier, he ordered Hill to make the Helicarriers fire at each other with him still aboard, despite her protests she did as ordered and the Project Insight Helicarriers were destroyed. Rogers survived the crash, and Alexander Pierce was killed by Nick Fury. Romanoff leaked all of S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA's files onto the internet, effectively destroying S.H.I.E.L.D.[9]

Fury's Mole at Stark Industries

Once the battle at the Triskelion left S.H.I.E.L.D. in shambles, Hill visited the Human Resources department of Stark Industries, and was interviewed for a job. This was a move to protect herself from prison as the protection coming from Stark Industries' lawyers rather than Tony Stark, as well as to allow her to continue maintaining global security. She communicated with Nick Fury during this time, feeding him intelligence and covertly working for him.[9][11]

While working for Stark Industries she was interviewed and questioned by various intelligence agencies from around the world including the CIA, the NSA, and the NRO. She was also interviewed by Congress, which to her were the most stressful meetings because in her view they acted like children. Despite working for Stark, she was still constantly under high-level surveillance by multiple agencies including an unknown Russian agency.[7]

Assisting Phil Coulson

Confronted by Melinda May

One night in Washington, D.C., while complaining to Pepper Potts about the hearings, Hill noticed the many poorly-concealed agents tailing her had been knocked out. Hill called for backup and was unsurprised to be confronted by Melinda May shortly thereafter. May revealed Phil Coulson's location and asked Hill to check on him as he had learnt information about his revival. She demanded to know who was behind Project T.A.H.I.T.I., believing that it was Alexander Pierce.

Hill confessed that she asked Nick Fury before, but he only told her, "that he buried the intel when he decided not to bury Coulson." May guessed that it was a riddle she needed to solve and asked Hill if she could ask Fury directly, but Hill insisted that he had indeed been assassinated just before the Battle at the Triskelion, though May did not believe this story. Their conversation was cut short when at last the FBI showed up to protect her, at which point Hill berated them for taking more than three minutes to locate her, something she would never have tolerated in her own S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.[7]

Infiltrating Providence

Maria Hill arrives in the Providence base

"Hold your fire, soldiers.""This is one of the most classified facilities on the planet, Colonel. How the hell did you find it?""I told them."

Hill subsequently reported the location of Nick Fury's top secret Providence base to the United States Armed Forces in the hopes that its capture could be used to prevent Phil Coulson and his team being sent to prison. Colonel Glenn Talbot arrived first, causing a stand-off between him and Coulson's Team, who had been hiding out in the base. Coulson demanded to know how Talbot found the base, at which point Hill arrived and revealed she was the one who had informed Talbot.

Upon arriving at the base, Talbot questioned Coulson's Team while Hill had a meeting with Coulson and tried in vain to convince him to surrender the base to Talbot and his men; telling him to hand over some small pieces of intel about S.H.I.E.L.D., which just annoyed him. Coulson refused and told her that their priority should be tracking down the traitors John Garrett and Grant Ward, who were HYDRA agents, was responsible for the murders of Eric Koenig and Victoria Hand, and had recently kidnapped Agent Skye. Hill made her choice and helped Coulson fight off Colonel Glenn Talbot and his men, before she and Coulson's team escaped.[7]

Hill tracked down Grant Ward who was attempting to escape with Skye and Deathlok in the Bus. Hill, onboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. Jump Jet, confronted Ward and ordered him to surrender, threatening to shoot him out of the sky. Ward then taunted her that Nick Fury should have made Black Widow his second, making it clear that he knew Phil Coulson would not allow Skye to be sacrificed. Hill continued distracting Ward long enough to allow Coulson to sneak aboard the plane and rescue Skye.

Later that night, Coulson took rooms in a small motel; he asked Hill to set up tactical back-up for him as he prepared to attack John Garrett. Hill told him there was no S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore. Hill implored Coulson and his team to end their association with S.H.I.E.L.D. as soon as Garrett had been defeated. She gave Coulson an offer to work for Tony Stark, but Coulson declined. He asked her to say hello to Stark for him, but changed his mind when he remembered that Stark still believed he was dead. Hill left without saying goodbye, also telling Melinda May that Ward was HYDRA.[7]

Finding the Scepter

"I'm guessing HYDRA doesn't know that Loki's Scepter was the weapon that killed me, but I bet they know it can control minds.""In their hands that's catastrophic; Coulson please tell me you know where it is.""Sokovia, pretty sure List is headed there right now."

As Hawkeye was being taken to be cared for by Helen Cho, Hill spoke to Captain America about Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, whom they had encountered during the battle; Hill explained their powers in detail to Rogers, switching to less complicated terms to make it clear to him. When Hill made a comment about how they had volunteered for Strucker and List's experiments, Rogers compared them to himself as he had volunteered for Abraham Erskine's experiments.[11]

Celebration

"Hey, What about Jane? Where are the ladies, gentlemen?""Well Ms. Potts has a company to run.""Yes, I’m not even sure what country Jane’s in. Her work on the Convergence has made her the world’s foremost astronomer."

Hill was present at a celebratory party thrown by Tony Stark at the Avengers Tower. Drinking with Stark, Thor, and James Rhodes, she snidely opined that Pepper Potts and Jane Foster had intentionally missed the party, mocking the pair as they competed over who had the more impressive girlfriend by listing their accomplishments before Hill walked away with Rhodes while teasing them over their egos and how both of their respective partners could ever deal with such a pair.

Once most of the guests had left the party, Hill sat with fellow former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clint Barton and continued drinking and played cards with Rhodes and Stark. While many of the Avengers attempted to lift Thor's hammer Mjølnir without success; Hill herself did not attempt to lift the hammer, although she did take a chance to make fun of Steve Rogers for some comments he had made during the Attack on the HYDRA Research Base earlier that day which Black Widow had decided to tell her.[11]

While the celebrations continued, the group was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Ultron, an A.I. made from the bodies of several Iron Legion robots. Hill was the first to load her gun as Ultron began ranting about his desire to destroy the Avengers in order to save the world from further destruction as he viewed them as a great threat to humanity.

Despite Steve Rogers best efforts to reason with the robot, Ultron refused to listen and instead sent in a small army of reprogrammed Iron Legion robots to attack them. Hill joined the team in a fight against Ultron's small army Ultron Sentries, firing her gun at them while the main heroes destroyed them as best they could. Eventually Ultron's body was destroyed by Thor who launched Mjølnir at the main body, but not before one of the Sentries had managed to escape with the Scepter before it could be stopped.[11]

Argument

In the aftermath of the skirmish, Hill and the rest of the team were forced to make a plan to deal with the new threat. Hill and James Rhodes noted that as Ultron had proven that he could hack into the Avengers Tower's security systems, he could easily steal nuclear codes and cause global destruction. They went on to discuss who Ultron had killed, as Tony Stark to revealed J.A.R.V.I.S.' mainframe had been attacked and seemingly destroyed by Ultron.[11]

In the aftermath of the Duel of Johannesburg between Iron Man and the Hulk, the public blamed the massive destruction caused on the Avengers. Maria Hill called Clint Barton while he piloted the Quinjet and recommended that they hide out for a while, as the team was suffering from the effects of Wanda Maximoff. Barton assured her that he knew where they could go, taking them to his home where they could rest and then be greeted by Director Nick Fury.[11]

Flying the Helicarrier in close, Hill sent out the rescue crafts to save the civilians while War Machine assisted in the battle. One of Ultron Sentries attacked the Helicarrier during the battle, but Hill and Fury fought back, with Hill firing her weapon at the attacking robot until they destroyed it before it did more harm to the ship or their crew-members. Eventually the battle was won, thousands of civilians were saved and Ultron was destroyed forever by the Vision.[11]

Personality

Maria Hill is well-known in S.H.I.E.L.D. for being rather tough-minded and by the book. Her clear-headed pragmatism and reason was valued on multiple important occasions, especially during the critical situation surrounding the Avengers Initiative.

She was shown to be extremely loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. and especially to Director Nick Fury, having personally helped him several times, such as when he faked his death after being attacked by the Winter Soldier. However, Hill ultimately proved that for the greater good, she was willing to discard her loyalties to S.H.I.E.L.D. and help Captain America to destroy HYDRA, despite the fact that it would tear S.H.I.E.L.D. apart.

Since working for Stark Industries, Hill has grown close to her employer Pepper Potts and the Avengers. Though very professional when on the job, she jokes with her colleagues and is lighthearted during times of levity.

Abilities

Expert Marksman: Hill is incredibly skilled with firearms. Alongside Nick Fury, Hill was able to defend the Helicarrier from Loki’s brainwashed agents using only a sidearm. She also engaged and attempted to stop Agent Clint Barton, who had fallen under Loki’s spell, in a high speed firefight as the brainwashed agent tried to aid Loki in his escape with the Tesseract. As two HYDRA operatives attempted to remove her from the Project Insight command center, Hill killed them before they could fire a shot.

Expert Martial Artist: Hill is a highly trained combatant and martial artist, capable of engaging and defeating several of Colonel Glenn Talbot’s highly trained soldiers unarmed after they had captured Coulson's Team in Providence. During this altercation Hill displayed incredible skill in martial arts, and maintained the upper hand throughout the entire fight.

Smith & Wesson M&P Compact: Hill carried the compact version of the Smith & Wesson M&P pistol to protect herself following S.H.I.E.L.D.'s collapse, taking it when she realized the people tasked with her surveillance had been knocked unconscious.

Glock 17: Hill traded her Glock 19 for a Glock 17 when she commanded the Helicarrier with Nick Fury to help with the evacuation of civilians in Sokovia. Hill shot at the Ultron Sentry that managed to crash inside the bridge, until it was ultimately destroyed by Fury.